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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Arifa Akbar

Arabian Nights review – warming festive treat with bags of scrappy charm

Rough and ready delight … Nicholas Karimi and Yasemin Özdemir in Arabian Nights at Bristol Old Vic.
Rough and ready delight … Nicholas Karimi and Yasemin Özdemir in Arabian Nights at Bristol Old Vic. Photograph: Ellie Kurttz

Here is a charmingly hybrid festive show, part modern retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, part alternative pantomime.

There is a narcissistic tyrant-king (Nicholas Karimi) who is depleting the kingdom of its natural resources for his own selfish ends. After his queen absconds, he takes revenge on womankind by sending out marital orders to female villagers and then consigns those brides to his dungeon.

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